Ordering wine in Paris
 

In the U.S., if a particular wine comes both by the glass and by the bottle, my husband often will ask for a small taste before ordering a bottle. The waiters never seem to mind this. He thinks he can do the same in Paris, but I am afraid we will be seen as rude and gauche Americans.

NIME - I've seen French folks do this a lot and at times disgustingly spit it out with something like 'oh my God'!

Well, every restaurant I've ever been in in France AND the USA will always pour a small bit of wine into your glass after opening the bottle so you can taste it first, anyway, so you do have the option of refusing a wine. But asking for a taste before you actually even order? Somehow I don't think that would go down well in Paris (though admittedly I've never tried), unless your French is perfect and you can handle a friendly exchange with the waiter that explains you are accustomed to doing this at home...but even then, I wouldn't go there. There aren't all that many places in Paris where wine comes by the glass, either.

If it comes as you suggest there is no reason why he should not ask.

Generally, and I mean generally, I find the French pretty unpretentious in restaurants about wine.

I also find you being pleasant to waiters works a charm (more honey than vinegar), if however the place has a fantastic long list and too much silverware I find the wine "knowledge" of the "Director du Vin" can get in the way.

But like StCirq I don't see many wines sold by the glass and the bottle in a restaurant.

Still I have a view, lunch is when you drink the wine of the house, supper is when you drink wine of your selection.

Indeed, when you order a bottle of wine, you are always obliged to taste it first. You can then refuse it if you find it repulsive. But if you order a glass of wine and then a bottle of the same stuff, obviously you will pay for 1 glass + 1 bottle and might appear to be a bit anal since obviously no matter how 'bad' the glass you ordered is, you will have to pay for it, unlike the bottle. People who order wine by the glass supposedly know the quality ahead of time.

Restaurants have a more limited carte for those sold by the glass, but there are enough. I often choose that option if I dine alone, of course. And some restaurants have the half bottles, also. I don't think they usually offer you a taste of that, I don't recall, maybe they do. I'm not that picky, I've never had anything bad. BUt I've never had to ask to have a taste if they are serving a bottle.

I don't really understand the OP, what does a wine coming in both glasses and bottles have to do with it? I think it is because this husband doesn't know what he likes and wants to try out to see if he likes it, not just to taste it to see if the wine has gone bad or something (which is the point of the tasting, mostly).

To be honest, I think some waiters have offered me a taste of wine a couple times in Paris when I was trying to decide and said I wasn't familiar with a certain label or type. But I didn't ask directly. So I think if you worded it in that way, it couldn't be offensive (I'm not sure what to choose, I'm not familiar with this wine, what is it like?), even if they didn't offer you a taste just to have you decide if you like a certain wine you've never heard of before. Because I don't think any French restaurant can really be in business by opening expensive bottles of wine for someone who just decides they don't like that type because they don't know what they are ordering.

Very good advice from C

I'd go to a wine bar first and taste some wines
and the next time you can judge what you would like.
tasting as above will cost you/

It doesn't hurt to ask.

I am a wine person. I don't think it is tacky or gauche to talk about or enjoy wine.

If I were a waiter, I would appreciate wine enthusiasm!

I think most professionals can tell a wine aficionado from a cheap looking for a freebie.


In Vino Veritas, Miss Thing!

Thin

PS

The OP wrote that her husband would only ask for samples from wines offered by the glass.

Therefore, the waiter would NOT be opening a bottle of wine that would be discarded if not wanted!

Thin

As Christina says, the initial taste of wine is to make sure that it hasn't gone bad, i.e., gone to vinegar. Restaurants are not tasting bars.

My experience in France is that good wines are sold by the bottle. House wines are sold by the pichet, about 8 ounces.

In my experience many restaurants in France have extremely limited wine choices by the glass - almost all is by bottle or half-bottle - so getting a preview is often simply not going to be possible. Also the wines by the glass in some places tend to be lower cost and most popular - so possibly things you won;t want bottles of - or need to taste.

Using a restaurant for wine tasting may be a bit too much, indeed.
OTOH, you can always ask the waiter what he/she would suggest with your meal.
As waitstaff in French restaurants usually is not a bunch of college kids on their summer job, you can expect a decently qualified recommendation. A good waiter should always to able to make a suggestion, not only from the upper price bracket of their wine list.
IME, you do get a "free tasting" (not implying that OP was trying to get it) if the waiter wants you to try a wine that would not be the obvious choice or had a particular taste but he thinks would fit your preferences or the meal or course.

On our May trip to Paris, I was doing "horizontal flights", for want of a better word. At ever meal, I would order Brouilly. Some were better than others.

The last night, I decided to order something else. The waiter said, " No, no, no! This better and costs less!" And promptly brought Brouilly.

If you like the look of the restaurant, you can trust the waiter's advice. As Cowboy1968 says, they are professionals or apprentice professionals.

We've always found in Paris, as well as the rest of France, that if you want a decent bottle of wine, at a reasonable price, go with the chef's or sommelier’s recommendation or the house wine. It would be suicide for a restaurant to serve a bad wine.

If you decide on a tasting menu with wine paring, then expect the best.

There are also several restaurants that serve wine by the glass for lunch, a number of them include a glass in the fixed price menu, including Fish La Boissonnerie, 69 rue de Seine, a favorite of ours and Patricia Wells.

We dine out around 30 times each year in France. My wife almost always orders seafood for a main course and I have red meat (but not beef). We order a full bottle of white wine & I'll order a glass of red wine to go with the red meat. So far, the waiter has always produced a glass of red for me as my main dish arrived. We did this at about 5 Michelin 1 star restaurants in the Pays Basque last year.

Stu Dudley

Many of the wine bars in Paris have a great selection.
You may to taste some before you order n a restaurant.
I tell my waiter what I expect what I'm ordering,
and what price I can afford. Never was steered wrong.